Lakeith Stanfield

“When you're talking about an authority figure oppressing against people, it's the people that hold that authority figure up. If you want to get free of this bondage, then we need to think about ways to free ourselves rather than looking to the oppressors to free us.”

“I write poetry, and I put it to a beat - I mean, that's what they call rap.”

“I think prejudice has gotten to a point where a lot of people hold biases in their mind and don't even realize that they're doing it, because it's deeply ingrained in the fabric of what it means to be an American.”

“I was kind of a weird kid in high school. I didn't have many friends in my age group because all they wanted to do was fight and have riots.”

“Some people look like they're lost causes, but they're not. Even if they're in a messed up situation, the one little thing you do to help can go a long way.”

“I'm influenced a lot by my family. I have a big family.”

“We used to do sock puppet shows for my auntie back in the day. Me and my friends would do accents of Englishmen, and we would sip tea and act like we were rich in front of the family, and they thought it was just hilarious, the level of perception that we had about things that we'd never experienced.”

“I wanted to be as genuine as possible because all those people like Jimmie Lee Jackson - me, Mike Brown, all these people - we're all the same; we're not much different.”

“I've done music since I would sit and make songs on my computer mic when I was 11.”

“I've been fortunate to get involved with 'Short Term 12.' I was just a young teenager on the Internet, clicking on anything that had the word 'actor' in it. One day, someone called me in for a movie audition.”

“My producer, HH, makes sounds, so I'm writing to his beats.”

“They say every five years the atoms in your body become a new set of atoms.”

“I'm in this music duo called Moors.”

“I want to be in some Willy Wonka-type weird stuff, a role where I'm an alien. Anything that's new and challenging and real. I like real stuff.”

“Have you ever heard of 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' I would like to play Sidney Poitier's role - I love that role.”

“I feel like with every performance that I see, I get better because I've always thought - while I'm watching people perform - of what I would do.”

“I really like watching myself a lot because it gives me an opportunity to see it from outside the flesh, and when I view it like that, I can be a lot more cynical and see the things that need to be attacked.”

“When I was little, when I was a toddler or something, I would watch 'Jason's Lyrica' lot.”

“My focus is anything that allows me to express myself. Rap, dance, photography. Those are my forms of expression.”